World News Quick Take

Agencies

THAILAND

New hula hoop record set

Nearly 5,000 contestants are celebrating after setting a world record for the most people dancing with hula hoops simultaneously in one place. Guinness World Records adjudicator Seyda Subasi-Gemici said on Tuesday that 4,483 people had swung hula hoops to music for seven minutes without interruption. The event, organized by the Public Health Ministry’s Department of Health, was aimed at creating health awareness among Thais. The previous world record was set in Taiwan in 2011 when 2,496 participants swung hula hoops for two minutes.

NEW ZEALAND

Politician explains remarks

A politician offered a qualified apology yesterday for saying young Muslim men were a terrorist threat who should be banned from flying on Western airlines. After his remarks were condemned across the political spectrum, Richard Prosser of the New Zealand First party said he had failed to acknowledge that the vast majority of Muslims were law-abiding and did not support extremism. Prosser said his call for all males aged between 19 and 35 who were Muslim, looked Muslim or came from Muslim countries, to be banned from flights was too broad, but said he still supported “targeted profiling” of airline passengers.

AUSTRALIA

Emu theft causes concern

Keepers at a wildlife park yesterday said they were concerned and baffled at the theft of an emu in a night raid, saying it would be frightened and possibly injured. The female bird was discovered missing from Featherdale Wildlife Park in Sydney’s western suburbs early on Tuesday. Her enclosure contained a large quantity of feathers, indicating a struggle. “It’s unbelievable,” park curator Chad Staples told national broadcaster ABC. “I understand to a degree when you’re talking about an animal that has significant monetary value, but an emu?”

PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Police stop ‘witch’ burning

Police have rescued two women accused of sorcery who were about to be set alight, a report said yesterday, days after a young mother accused of witchcraft was burned alive by a mob. Sorcery cases have been a priority for authorities after the horrific case of a 20-year-old woman who last week was stripped naked, doused with gasoline and set alight before a crowd, Highlands Divisional Police Commander Teddy Tei told the National newspaper. The newspaper said in the latest incident on Monday, two elderly women were tied to poles and people were preparing to set them alight over the death of an eight-year-old girl. The girl’s relatives believed the women caused the death of the child using sorcery, but Tei said she had been “gang-raped and killed by two known suspects” and these suspects were part of the mob attacking the older women.

COSTA RICA

Fried rice record smashed

Members of the nation’s Chinese community celebrated the arrival of the Year of the Snake by setting the world record on Tuesday for the largest amount of fried rice ever cooked. Briton Ralph Hannah, an inspector with Guinness World Records, certified the win after putting the giant meal — enough to feed some 7,000 people — on a set of scales. The official weight: 837kg, which nearly doubles the previous record. Some 735kg of rice was used, along with 200kg of chicken, 120kg of ham, 20kg of Chinese sausage, hundreds of eggs and vast amounts of chopped vegetables.